Horse or no horse, Penn Hills football schedules scrimmage at Aliquippa

By: Chris Harlan
Monday, April 20, 2020 | 10:39 PM

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Jon LeDonne is taking his Penn Hills football team to Aliquippa to scrimmage at his alma mater’s stadium this fall.

With one condition.

“I told them to make sure they’ve still got the horse and the flaming spear,” said LeDonne, a 2001 Aliquippa graduate who witnessed the Quips’ pregame tradition plenty of times.

His brother, Aliquippa athletic director Brandon LeDonne, won’t make any promises.

“I don’t know if we can pull that off for a scrimmage,” he said. “We’re going to work on that, but I told him he can bring all the smoke he wants.”

Aliquippa and Penn Hills on Monday finalized plans to scrimmage Aug. 27 at Carl A. Aschman Stadium. If this were a different year, without the coronavirus outbreak, the two teams might have scheduled a Week Zero game. But since Pennsylvania high school teams aren’t allowed to work out together until at least July, it made more sense to schedule a scrimmage that week, Jon LeDonne said.

“Whether it’s a scrimmage or game, hopefully they bring the horse out,” he said laughing.

Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday, an unusual night for a football game.

The two teams have talked about playing one another since after the 2018 season when Penn Hills and Aliquippa both won state titles. There’s still a slim chance the scrimmage will be converted into a Week Zero game Aug. 28, Jon LeDonne said, but that’s not the plan.

“Being off until July is hurting everybody,” he said. “You try to make do with what you can do online, but it’s not the same as actually being out there on the field with them.”

Penn Hills had previously agreed to face Martinsburg (W.Va.) in a Week Zero event at Woodland Hills, but the West Virginia school scheduled another opponent instead. That left Penn Hills searching for a game. LeDonne talked with his brother and Quips coach Mike Warfield, who were actively searching for an opponent.

“Aliquippa is in the same boat as us,” Jon LeDonne said. “No one wants to play them. No one wants to play us. Going down there, you know you’re going to get top-notch competition. Guys are going to be ready.”

Football teams have the option of playing two scrimmages or converting their second scrimmage into a so-called Week Zero game. Penn Hills played a Week Zero game last fall at Pine-Richland and Aliquippa visited Clairton, but the Quips coaches preferred a second scrimmage this year, Brandon LeDonne said.

Finding an opponent to scrimmage was a challenge.

“It’s kind of one of those things that worked out,” Brandon LeDonne said. “These are two tradition-rich communities as far as football.”

After Gov. Tom Wolf closed the state’s school building for the remainder of the year, the PIAA announced that teams are not allowed to practice until at least July 1. Classes moved online and coaches moved their team workouts there as well.

Jon LeDonne and his staff keep in contact with players through apps and video conferencing programs, he said.

“We’re in touch with them at least two or three days a week,” he said. “Just stay on top of them academically, making sure they’re doing stuff and working their bodies physically.”

LeDonne said his Penn Hills players are well aware of Aliquippa’s horse, rider and flaming spear.

“They tried to convince me a couple of years back to get that here at Penn Hills,” LeDonne said. “I don’t think (school administrators) are going to appreciate us throwing a flaming spear into the turf.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Aliquippa, Penn Hills